Out of autopilot & into our best life

Vietnam is abundant in natural landscapes that provide attractive destinations for tourists seeking holistic experiences that cater to their mind, body, and spirit. Vietnam is an important market in Southeast Asia.

Varun Grover, country head for Vietnam Booking.com

To explore how travel will transport people out of autopilot and into unleashing their best life, we commissioned research among more than 27,000 travellers across 33 countries and territories, combining it with its insights as a leading digital travel platform to reveal seven predictions for travel in 2024.

Ego Enthusiasts: Creating alter egos

In 2024, travellers will feel more alive by creating their very own epic alter egos during their holidays, with 37 per cent weaving intricate narratives about their real lives when interacting with fellow travellers. These enthusiasts love the thrill of embodying a 2.0 version of themselves, and go to great lengths to reimagine their best self, with 78 per cent of Vietnamese travellers enjoying the anonymity of travel and the chance to recreate themselves.

They’re excited to reinvent themselves and take on different personas when travelling to feel more alive. 76 per cent feel they are the best version of themselves on holiday, able to shed inhibitions and embrace new aspects of their personalities, and 56 per cent would even pay to rent a nicer car than they drive at home to live their finest lives with confidence.

What’s more, 65 per cent of Vietnamese travellers feel ‘main character energy’ on their travels, with these performers empowered to be the stars of their own life. They might also want to use their travels as an extension of aliases and avatars they use online.

Cool-cationers

As global temperatures continue to rise, travellers are seeking cooler destinations to escape the heat. Three out of four Vietnamese travellers report that climate change will impact the way they plan their vacation in 2024, with 75 per cent saying that as temperatures soar close to home, they will use their vacation to cool down elsewhere.

The majority of Vietnamese travellers (82 per cent) agree that being close to water instantly makes them feel more relaxed, and are interested in water-centric vacations. As people dive head first into aquatic escapes, mindful water immersion will quickly become the next mainstream version of meditation. This fresh form of feel-alive wellness travel will see floating yoga, water sound baths and snow meditation surge, as well as a boom in ice therapy retreats.

Surrender Seekers

Travellers in 2024 are increasingly inclined to embrace spontaneity and adventure. Over half of Vietnamese (62 per cent) are keen to book a surprise trip where everything down to the destination is unknown until arrival. The adventurous traveller of 2024 is wanting to step outside of the homogenised holiday, preferring to venture off the beaten path and seeking to travel with strangers.

Nearly 60 per cent of Vietnamese travellers would like to have no plans set in stone prior to travelling so they can go where the wind takes them, while 81 per cent of Vietnamese travellers prefer to travel with loose plans so they can change direction based on what feels good at the moment.

Culinary Excavators

Food plays an important role in the travel experience with nearly 73 per cent Vietnamese travellers more interested in discovering more about a destination’s ‘must-eat’ delicacies than ever before. Culinary excavators are leaning on gastro-tourism to preserve the true craftsmanship of the traditional dishes and embrace the unique history, geography and produce that makes for one-of-a-kind cuisine that awakens the senses.

Most Vietnamese travellers (94 per cent) want to try indigenous cuisines and explore heritage flavours in 2024, unlocking the secrets of cultures which may have been lost or forgotten in other parts of the world. Expect an increase in indigenous experiences that take travellers on trails that tell the story behind the food they serve, bringing pride and income to communities.

Reboot Retreaters

When things are falling apart back home amid global instability and an ever-hectic world, dishevelled travellers are booking one-track trips that are focused on self-improvement to bring themselves back to the life they truly want again.

For those who are used to sleeping solo, 62 per cent of Vietnamese travellers would carve out time for a matchmaking holiday to find a spark with a new partner or lover. On the flip side, for those increasingly frazzled parents, they are surprisingly seeking solace on completely solo holidays, with the majority of Asia-Pacific parents (66 per cent) planning to travel alone in 2024, dropping the kids and their partners to prioritise their vitality.

A La Carte Affluencers

Travellers in 2024 are looking to optimise their vacations by seeing value and luxury simultaneously. They want to level up their holiday experience with à la carte’ luxuries’ but are keen to cut costs. These à la carte ‘affluencers’ want to appear wealthy, sweeping away the reality of having to make financial sacrifices, but behind the scenes are obsessed with see-through spending and curating budget-friendly travel itineraries with the help of AI.

In fact, 71 per cent of Vietnamese travellers will want insights and tips from AI when on holiday to upgrade experiences with suggested ancillaries and deals, all with a flick of their finger.

Additionally, nearly half (48 per cent) plan to pick destinations in 2024 where the cost of living is less expensive than their hometown, while 54 per cent of Vietnamese travellers want to travel closer to home to reduce costs in 2024.

Two-thirds of Vietnamese travellers will be willing to pay for day passes to use the amenities in a five-star hotel rather than actually staying there, with a similar number of parents (60 per cent) planning to take their children out of school to travel outside of peak season to make their money stretch further in 2024.

Mindful Aesthetes

Once upon a time, the words sustainable and stylish were not necessarily synonymous, with the words ‘eco-travel’ conjuring up visions of primitive campsites. Design and mindfulness converge in 2024, opening up new and inspiring doors for travellers who have a desire to make more conscious and responsible choices, not just for a short getaway, but as a way of life.

These travellers will hunt down jaw-dropping architecture that has environmental features at its heart, with 73 per cent Vietnamese travellers looking for accommodation that has wow-factor sustainability innovation. 78 per cent want to see sustainability in action, while 83 per cent of Vietnamese travellers say they want to see the outside brought indoors with green spaces and plants in accommodations on holiday.

In 2024, in exchange for contributing to conservation efforts, sustainable itineraries will give travellers exclusive access to the places that they are helping preserve, in the most mindful way.

Tourism to become truly spearhead, green industry by 2030 Vietnam aims to turn tourism into a truly spearhead economic sector with green growth and world leading development capacity by 2030.

Quang Tri’s tourism promotion offers greater access to unique attractions Quang Tri province’s tourism is bewitching travellers with its unique natural landscapes, especially sea and island tourism activities.